Sudan army says fighting with South along border

Sudan's army on Wednesday said it had fought with South Sudanese troops and their rebel allies, expelling them from two areas along the border.

"SAF troops attacked Kafindibei on May 7 and after heavy fighting secured it completely," the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency.

"Today, May 9, troops continued their advance to Kafia Kingi... and they succeeded in defeating the SPLA and their allies," he said, referring to the South's army.

The two areas are in South Darfur state, just inside the border from South Sudan's Western Bahr El Ghazal state.

Khartoum announced last week that it would honour a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities effective on Friday. The Southern government in Juba also said it would comply.

At the same time, Sudan accused South Sudan of continuing aggression by occupying disputed points along the border and warned that if they did not withdraw they would be forced out in an act of self-defence.

Colonel Kella Kueth, deputy spokesman of South Sudan's army, said his forces were not involved in the Darfur border clashes which were between Khartoum's army and northern rebels.

"We, the South, do not have anything to do with Darfur. We do not concern ourselves about that," Kueth said.

Sudan accuses the South of backing rebels from Darfur as well as those fighting in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Juba rejects the claims, and in turn accuses Khartoum of backing rebels on its territory.